


A Study On Gem Language

by BabyPom



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: a partial explanation for how the rebellion managed to succeed in the gem war, a pretend piece of study on a fictional language, pseudo-intellectual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-11-02
Packaged: 2019-01-28 10:47:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12604860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BabyPom/pseuds/BabyPom
Summary: An unnamed Gem writes a slightly rebellious piece of writing in the form of a study on the written language of the gem people.





	A Study On Gem Language

There are two forms of gem language when written down. The symbol language used to tell you which diamond the place belongs to, and a general idea of it's purpose, and the other kind, the ones used by the upper classes. The ones for books and messages, and the really important things, the one that took years upon years to even get even semi-decent at, not that anyone would ever say that this complexity annoyed them, the language having been given to them by White Diamond herself.  
The useful thing about not teaching the lower classes this second language meant that nothing ever had to be coded, just written down, if it wasn’t supposed to common knowledge. After all everybody high enough rank to read it was by default high enough rank to be allowed to read it. You could call a guard of Ruby or Amethyst or Jasper into a room for important work without worrying about a security breach with ease.  
Of course, it would also by default lock the lower class gems out of accessing much of the culture of Gem Society. Books, and poetry, and any philosophical discourse were limited to a few public lectures, or the few plays or performances that they would have the chance to get invited to for exceptional acts that weren’t quite enough to be awarded a Pearl for.  
Overall, limiting language worked very good for gem society until the Gem War. With the war, the enemy, the treacherous Rose Quartz and her allies had no issues with taking out the generals of the armies, which would often lead to huge sections of the army left without instructions- all of the portable communications devices of the time only allowed written communication instead of face to face. The rubies and jaspers and amethysts and topazes had no way of understanding these messages, and left without an Aquamarine or Emerald or other higher gem to read and spread these messages, they wouldn’t act in any way other than defense, as they had no way of knowing where to go until another general could locate them and assign someone new.  
Rose Quartz’s army on the other hand made sure that one of the first things they taught new recruits was how to read, allowing them fast information transmission, no matter who got poofed or shattered. Within a few years, the rebellion had even stopped using the complicated gem language, preferring the simpler primitive earth written languages. In the end it was this difference in how information was transmitted that made Rose Quartz’s rebellion much more efficient and stronger and united.  
By the time that the Homeworld forces had realised this, they were already too late into the war to put the rebellion’s tactics into use into their own army. They tried of course, to teach the soldiers how to read and interpret the messages, but by then it was too late, and they still refused to lower themselves to Rose Quartz's level and use a less complicated form. Too much ground had already been lost. It was too late to win.  
However, Homeworld would never let this mistake be repeated. The new communication devices, developed by the Era-II Perdiots, allowed face-to-face communication without time delay, but these took a long time to produce, and many resources. So written language became something for everyone, not just the high class gems, out of necessity to prevent a repeat of the Homeworld’s greatest failure.


End file.
